Among the many hopeful performers last month
in Göteborg (Gothenberg) at the third Semifinal
of Sweden's extremely popular Melodifestivalen
singing competition -telecast LIVE by SVT-
http://svt.se/2.120908/melodifestivalen_2010
for the chance to represent Sweden at the 2010
Eurovision Song Contest in late May in Oslo,
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/home
was a very intriguing four-woman pop group
known as Timoteij, singing what I'd call a
folk-inspired pop song titled Kom.
("Come" as in a plaintive plea.)
The band only formed in the Fall of 2008,
from some music students in the Skaraborg
area of central Sweden: Cecilia Kallin,
Bodil Bergstrom, Elina Thorsell and
Johanna Pettersson.
Despite how talented each woman was known
to be individually, nobody could've honestly
predicted that Sweden as a whole would be so
knocked-out by them ensemble, but appealing
they are, and this has caused some pop culture
watchers to say that maybe the fog has lifted,
and that Swedish power pop has -finally-
returned to its roots, by doing what it always
did so well when it really mattered and was
actually popular outside of the country:
well-crafted songs with catchy hooks and
great harmonies that linger in your head
long after the song has ended.
Some Swedish music industry types have even
gone so far as to publicly say that this overdue
return to fun power pop is not just a very welcome
breath of fresh air, after an era where Sweden,
quite frankly, had really become a bit of a
tired afterthought musically, continually sending
performers to Eurovision that were clearly
too obscure or overtly theatrical than musical
-and sure to get hammered by judges and
millions of European TV viewers at home
for these very reasons- but an opportunity
for the entire Swedish music industry to regain
its balance.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that,
but certainly there's a palpable sense of new
confidence there that a certain degree of
competitiveness and interest has returned.
The group's tremendous performance last month
before a nation-wide TV audience has earned
them a spot in the Finals next Saturday night at
the Ericsson Globe Arena a.k.a. Globen,
in Stockholm, where they will be one of ten
acts vying to perform at this year's Eurovision
competition being held in Oslo, because it is the
home of last year's winner, Alexander Rybak,
whose Fairytale captured so many people's
attention last year, for both good and bad reasons.
Timoteij has created quite a buzz for themselves
all over Sweden and one reason for that, though
hardly the most important one, is that they sing
in Swedish and not in English, as so many other
acts have chosen to do over the years for all
sorts of practical marketing and voting
reasons.
Not that there's any consensus about the
issue, per se, since people clearly understand
why a Swedish singer or group hoping
to make it big would choose to go the
English route for the contest, but from
reading comments in different forums over
the past few weeks, people definitely seem
pleased that such a talented and immensely
appealing group has consciously chosen
to perform in Swedish, not Engelska.
Their harmonies are tight and heavenly,
as you'll hear for yourself when you watch
the video.
Melodifestivalen's homepage for Timoteij
is at http://svt.se/2.121002/timoteij?lid=puff_1786706&lpos=lasMer
Hanna intervjuar vinnarna i Göteborg Längd: 03:10
An SVT promo from December 21st, 2009 Timoteij utklassade alla
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grThquUDlKs
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Interview on SVT's Gomorron Sverige with
Cecilia Kallin and Johanna Pettersson of
Timoteij.
The groups's website is at http://www.timoteij.se/
And just when you counted them out, Slovakia,
yes, Slovakia, goes "Solid Gold" in its entry,
almost like they could get votes from South Florida
precincts, with the lovely Kristina singing her
heart out about Horehronie, a beautiful region of
Slovakia.
http://www.horehronie.com/
You know what they say, after the country girl
has seen the bright lights of Bratislava, there's
just no going back to the farm!
FYI: One of my former housemates from Arlington
is a member of the Foreign Service stationed in
Slovakia.
Slovakia shoots and it scores! Here's the travelogue version of the song
Sweet!
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